The overall objectives are (a) to provide research participation for undergraduates and M.S. level graduate students, (b) to provide a vehicle of reasearch for faculty at our institution, (c) to provide an institutional model of scientific research, (d) to increase the pool of minority students who will enter terminal degree programs with emphasis on biomedical research as a vocation, (e) to provide diverse dimensions to the research efforts of the institution and (f) to expand the scope and number of high quality research projects contained in the overall project. The projects contained in this program are designed to meet the stated objectives by involving student participants who are assigned sub-projects within the individual projects. The projects are diverse in nature and have as their specific objectives: (a) a study of the biochemical and chemical composition of mucus, the properties of which impart upon the maintenance of the protective function of the mucus blanket. Changes in the composition of the mucus substance or in its physical state have been implicated in many disease states (b) the synthesis of model systems of the cuproprotein, hemocyanin and to study mono and binuclear ligand bridged systems of the synthesized models (c) to biochemically characterize the relationship between the regulation of energy metabolism in Caulobacter crescentus with the regulation of cellular differentiation and cell division. Student involvement will help assure a supply of highly trained and motivated students who will likely seek terminal degrees in the biomedical sciences. By providing a diversity of projects, both in number and scope, a model of research has been established at our institution. In addition, we intend to continue to expand the number of projects within our program through the MBRS program while providing a mechanism by which our faculty can enter the arena of biomedical research.